The Northern Territory's Justice Minister is urging farmers to consider hiring prisoners before using foreign workers.

John Elferink says the Government's "Sentenced to a Job" program is a great opportunity for the Territory's horticultural sector.

"One of the great complaints you regularly hear is there's not enough labour and yet I've got prisons full of people who are often rated as very low security and who are unemployed," he said.

"So rather then source your labour from overseas, we have a source of labour which is sitting in a prison ready to go,

"And the other things is, this is giving people a bit of dignity and self-worth,

"These people are going to be out on the streets soon, they'll be in the community, and surely if we release them into the community with a job and some start-up capital, they're in a much better position then say 6 months ago when it was just the prison door hits you on the backside, and you had no job to go to, and you had no idea how to get a job... I don't want these guys back."

On today's Country Hour we spoke to Minister John Elferink and Ian Baker from the NT Farmers Association about how this program could work for Territory farmers.